Sunday, April 24, 2016

Beijing Allows Chinese Living in Regions Bordering Russia to Have Three Children

Paul
Goble

Staunton, April 21 – The Chinese
government’s decision to rescind its one-child policy and allow Chinese parents
to have two children has attracted attention around the world; its concurrent
decision reported this weekend to allow Chinese living in regions bordering
Russia to have three children is likely to attract evenmore attention in that country.

Today, South China Insight, a
Russian-language portal featuring news from China, reported that Beijing has
decided to allow couples living in regions along the Russian border to have
three children and not just two as is the case with some exceptions in the rest
of the People’s Republic (south-insight.com/node/218173).

If
that leads to a population boom in these border areas either because Chinese
already there decide to have three children or other Chinese move in to take
advantage of this exception, some in Russia are likely to view this as yet
another demographic threat from China, whose population density in border areas
is already far higher than in the Russian Federation.

Obviously,
this is a long-term challenge given that few of those born under this new
Beijing policy would come of age before 2040; but even that will be enough to
raise questions in Russian minds about China’s intentions toward Siberia and
the Russian Far East and about Vladimir Putin’s tilt away from Europe and
toward China.